According to a report by the Palestinian news agency Ma’an, the so-called Human Rights Watch has revealed that Israeli authorities intend to ban the operations of 37 international NGOs in Gaza and the West Bank effective March 1st. This decision is justified on the grounds that these organizations have refused to provide a list of their staff and personal information under the new registration requirements.Humanitarian organizations have asserted that these new conditions violate the fundamental principles of humanitarian work, particularly neutrality and independence. The report highlights that international aid organizations have consistently delivered life-saving humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, amidst severe pressures and Israeli attacks.On February 22nd, over 15 humanitarian organizations filed a petition arguing that the new registration requirements undermine international humanitarian law and pose a serious threat to the flow of life-saving aid to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Michelle Randhawa, Senior Refugee and Migrant Rights Officer at Human Rights Watch, stated that while Israeli officials continue their illegal and devastating blockade of Gaza, politicizing the registration requirements for aid organizations hampers their life-saving work.She emphasized that Israel must revoke the registration requirements and cease interfering with the operations of organizations striving to address the catastrophic humanitarian crises created by the regime in Gaza and the West Bank. Human Rights Watch reported that Israel has not committed to filling any potential aid gaps, with only 27 organizations having successfully received registration approval thus far.The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) indicated that if these organizations cease their activities in Gaza, one in three medical centers will immediately close, 20,000 patients will lose access to monthly specialized care, waterborne diseases and poor sanitary conditions will worsen, and immediate and severe gaps in the identification and treatment of malnutrition will arise.Previously, an Oxfam spokesperson stated in January that the organization would not share sensitive personal information with any parties involved in the conflict, as doing so would violate humanitarian principles, regulatory commitments, and data protection laws. They stressed that humanitarian organizations must maintain their operations and independence without political interference.In a statement released in May 2025, 55 organizations active in the region warned that the new laws imposed by Israel condition the registration of international organizations on political and ideological bias, undermining the neutrality, impartiality, and independence of humanitarian actors. This law, known as Government Resolution No. 2542, passed in December 2024, stipulates that all international organizations providing humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people must register with the Ministry of Immigration and Anti-Semitism by December 31, 2025, or risk losing their registration and being forced to cease operations by March 1, 2026.This law grants the Israeli cabinet broad authority to deny or revoke the registration of any organization or employee deemed a threat to public security or the regime’s security. According to Ma’an, this law does not apply to organizations providing services to Palestinians or Zionist settlers, including residents of East Jerusalem.The catastrophic situation in Gaza is alarming. By mid-October 2025, the United Nations Satellite Center reported that approximately 81% of all buildings in Gaza have been damaged. All 36 hospitals and most primary healthcare centers in the Gaza Strip have been affected or destroyed, and by November, over 97% of schools have also been damaged or destroyed.The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) announced that between mid-October and the end of November 2025, around 1.6 million people in Gaza\u2014equivalent to 77% of the region’s population\u2014faced critical or worse levels of hunger. OCHA reported that international organizations manage 60% of field hospitals and all stabilization centers for children suffering from acute malnutrition, providing 42% of total water, sanitation, and hygiene services.The blatant violation of international law by restricting aid to the Gaza Strip amounts to using hunger as a weapon of war. Despite a claimed ceasefire agreement in October 2025, the Israeli regime continues to limit the entry of aid into Gaza, resulting in shortages of medicine, reconstruction equipment, food, and water.Human Rights Watch noted that the deliberate restrictions imposed by the Israeli regime for political or military purposes violate its obligations as an occupying power under international humanitarian law. If these actions reach the level of using hunger as a weapon of war, it constitutes a war crime.The prohibition of 37 organizations follows Israel’s ban on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which severely limited the agency’s humanitarian capabilities, including the prohibition of aid distribution in Gaza and orders to close schools managed by UNRWA in East Jerusalem.In this context, in October 2025, the International Court of Justice issued its advisory opinion, stating that Israel’s claims of UNRWA’s neutrality are unfounded and that the regime’s obstruction of UNRWA’s operations violates international law.On October 7, 2023, the Israeli regime launched a war against the Gaza Strip with two main objectives: to eliminate the Hamas movement and to recover captured Zionists from the region. However, it failed to achieve these goals and was forced to resort to an agreement with Hamas for the exchange of captives.The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas officially announced on October 12, 2024, the achievement of a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip and the exchange of prisoners. The Israeli army also officially announced the implementation of the ceasefire in Gaza on October 13, 2024, but continues to obstruct its execution.The Israeli regime’s aggression against the Gaza Strip with U.S. support has resulted in widespread genocide of Palestinians and left extensive destruction leading to the obliteration of 90% of Gaza’s infrastructure. The United Nations estimates that the cost of rebuilding these damages is approximately $70 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Israeli regime plans to prohibit the activities of 37 international NGOs in Gaza and the West Bank starting March 1st.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":581,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-palestine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/581"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24594\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}